Appeals court says U.S. Boy Scouts can lease public land

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Boy Scouts of America can lease public land from the City of San Diego for a cheap rate despite the fact the scouts prohibit atheists, agnostics and homosexuals from becoming members, a U.S. appeals court ruled.

In an opinion on Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said two leases do not violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

The Boy Scouts policy denying membership to gay scouts and scout leaders has prompted protests and lawsuits. In 2000 the organization won a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the organization to ban gays whose conduct, the Boy Scouts argued, violated its values. The Scouts reaffirmed the policy earlier this year.

In San Diego, an organization chartered by the Boy Scouts leases portions of two popular city parks to provide children with an urban camping experience. In exchange for spending money developing facilities on the land, the Scouts pay virtually no rent.

A group of plaintiffs who are either lesbians or agnostics sued, saying they would use the land leased by the scouts but for the organization's discriminatory policies.

A lower court judge found the leases unconstitutional, but on Thursday a unanimous three judge 9th Circuit panel reversed. The city has leased 123 parcels to nonprofit agencies, the overwhelming majority of which are secular in nature, the court wrote, and 96 of those leases require no payment of rent.

"The city's practice of leasing its lands is by no means occasional or targeted in favor of sectarian organizations," it wrote.

Representatives for the plaintiffs and the Boy Scouts could not immediately be reached for comment.

The case in the 9th Circuit is Barnes-Wallace vs. Boy Scouts of America, 04-56167.